View from the Gutters is our weekly book club podcast. Each week we discuss one graphic novel or trade paperback, then nominate and vote on what to read for the next episode so you can read and discuss along with us.

This week on View from the Gutters, our topic work is JLA: Tower of Babel, by Mark Waid and Howard Porter. Following Grant Morrison's revival of the "Big 7" Justice League team in the mid-90s, Mark Waid took over writing duties on the book with issue 43. Tower of Babel is the critic and fan-acclaimed first arc of Waid's run, which was recently adapted as the direct-to-video Justice League: Doom.

This story sees dissent and disorder amongst the JLA, as they try to deal with a global threat while also trying to defend against a series of coordinated attacks against league members, as planned by Batman! It was an incredibly important story for DC at the time, as the repercussions from this arc reverberate throughout the DC Universe and are directly linked to both Identity Crisis and the events leading up to Infinite Crisis.

In our recommendation section our hosts nominated The Animal Man Omnibus, North 40, Fearless Defenders, Old City Blues, and Supercrooks for discussion on the next episode, and our selected title is The Animal Man Omnibus.

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